German Car Forum

FRANKFURT (AP) — Mercedes-Benz says it is taking over the Formula One championship team Brawn GP while ending its partnership with McLaren.

The German car maker says it will race in the future as the Mercedes GP team.

Brawn GP, which took over from Honda when it pulled out from the sport, won this year's constructors championship. Brawn's Jenson Button also won the drivers' title.

Ross Brawn is officially filthy rich. Predicted driver lineup for both teams:

Mclaren: Hamilton & Button

Mercedes GP: Rosberg & Heidfeld

But the big question is, who do I bloody cheer for??

It seems all manufacturers who raced in their own names in recent years, quitted after a short while.

Yup, it is tough for a corporation to not show results for the money they spend, while a private team can.

I wonder where McLaren is going to get an engine from or is Mercedes still going to supply them? But I am glad Mclaren is finally free of Mercedes, no more bastards like the SLR.

Good. Macca was becoming a disgrace these years. Only valuable asset they still have is Lewis Hamilton, the best driver currently in activity.

And Mercedes was only seen as the mere motorist, a poor value for the invested money.

If I understood well, Macca will have Mercedes engines for free till 2012, when the contract was supposed to end...

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula 1 | Mercedes takes ownership of Brawn
Have no idea why they are giving such a good deal to McLaren. Also why the heck are they signing Heidfield?

MB will unlikely suffer the same fate as fellow behemoth car manufacturers who've had forgettable experience in F1. Having supplied championship winning engines for some years now, MB couldn't have picked a better timing to eat the whole pie. The management of Ross Brawn and Nick Fry is perfect, and the commercial side of managing an F1 team isn't an issue for MB having worked side by side with Mclaren. Rosberg is full of untapped potential and Heidfeld is a solid driver.

Circumstances for buying a team can't be much better than this.

I´m 100% with you on this. But still don´t understand the point of being the McLaren´s engine suplier when you own another team, and even more, mantain the silver colour on the cars and probably the star on the hood, maybe this is just till 2011.

Funny enough this news explains the soap opera acted in by Brawn and Button. It seems like the strategy by Ross and Mercedes has been to offer Button a rather dysmal salary increase in an attempt to push him towards Mclaren.

As a champion, Button has little star equity. Sure he won but Germany prefer Vettel and Rosberg. Mercedes GP have very few reasons to sign Button as he does pull advertisers and neither is he as marketable as other top drivers. With Kimi and his managers playing greedy and hard to get, I forsee Mclaren passing on Kimi and signing the cheaper and soon to be desperate for a seat, Jenson Button.

Are you sure the Mercedes GP cars will carry a silver livery too?? As for supplying engines to Mclaren it's very logical. Partnerships between companies are often formed with very long term contracts and multiple clauses to protect both parties. In this instence, the Mercedes engine is an instrumental compnent of the MP4 cars and thus Mclaren would be severly disadvantaged if they were stripped of the engine supply over night.

Mclaren will enjoy MB engines until 2015 which is a reasonable time for them to seek a new engine or start their own engine programme.

Great and expected..

New team to cheer for..

No more heart ache with Mclaren..

Pheew..

Maybe they're going for a Red Bull/Toro Rosso type situation.

Is Mercedes selling its 40% stake in McLaren?

From what I read (some days ago, so maybe not that reliable), the ex-Brawn will be silver as soon as next year.

For the engine, well... it was obviously the condition to be freed from the exclusive contract with Macca. But it won't be developped especially for the Macca any more, so it may not be that much of an advantage any more...

Mercedes intends to sell its 40% share in McLaren.

I'm glad they're alone ow, Macca was such a pain with all the scandals and rediculous decisions taken, with Ron Dennis' megalomany and all that...

I am so happy yeah mercedes gp.
Wow i just wish we could get lewis at mercedes.

Why Mercedes GP?
First Benz disappears from Daimler-Benz, now we have Mercedes GP and not Mercedes-Benz GP.

Has Dr. Z something against Benz? Maybe some bad memories from Mannheim, I don't know?

It's because the general public only use the name Mercedes. News corporations and automotive pundits are the only ones who say Mercedes-Benz but solely for the sake of correctness. But I do find Mercedes GP to be quite unimaginative. I pray that Mclaren won't use GP in their name either.

Some corrections and clarifications, Macca won't get engines for free, Zietsche confirmed it and according to AMuS (the most reliable F1 source), they will provide them with free engines for 2010-2011 but will then sell them to a price for the remaining years, the 40% shares value is estimated at 200 millions euros, and mercedes will no longer pay 50% of drivers salary and make 30 millions of contribution to the macca R&D budget, also Mobil F1 will follow Merc. I hope they will retain Heidfeld, and again what a shame BMW pulled out, we would have a great battle between the 2 german titans.

2010 in Formula 1: Mercedes Grand Prix
Press Release

Mercedes-Benz will enter the Formula 1 World Championship with its own team, beginning with the 2010 season, and Daimler AG and McLaren Group will change their form of cooperation with effect as of 13 November 2009. This was announced by Daimler AG today.

Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.

The background to this decision are the new terms and conditions for Formula 1. The “Resource Restrictions” set by FOTA and FIA effectively limit expenditure for the design, construction and running of the racing cars. In addition, there will be a significantly higher income available for a Formula 1 team generated by the commercial rights of the racing series following the signing of the new Concorde Agreement.

The partnership between McLaren Mercedes has been in place since 1995 and ended its 15th joint Formula 1 season in 2009. The change to the form of cooperation is taking place by mutual agreement. Mercedes-Benz and McLaren will continue to co-operate with each other and the supply of engines could continue until 2015.

The McLaren Group have set themselves new targets, especially in the automotive sector, and Daimler understands and respects these new strategic objectives. For this reason, it has been agreed that the buy-back by the McLaren Group of the 40 per cent McLaren share owned by Daimler AG will be completed by 2011.

By taking this decision, Mercedes-Benz resumes its marvellous motor racing history on the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrows, the world’s most unique racing cars. Mercedes wants to continue the tradition in the style of these flawless Silver Arrows, which put their stamp on each era by winning the majority of the races they competed in.

“Mercedes-Benz is the most valued and best-known premium automotive brand in the world. This brand looks for competition of the utmost quality in all relevant fields in order to continually improve its performance in the face of such new challenges”, explains Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“Due to the new Formula 1 environment, we will face the competition in future on the most important motor sports stage with our own Silver Arrow works team.

“Our new Silver Arrow Formula 1 team is a great sporting and technical challenge and we will tackle this with sporting spirit and full of enthusiasm.”

Mercedes-Benz will restructure their Formula 1 programme and work hard to achieve further savings, going beyond the already completed steps for significant cost reductions and improved efficiency.

Since 1995, the beginning of the partnership, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have competed in 256 Grand Prix events and have achieved 60 victories. In 1998, 1999 and 2008, the British-German team won the drivers’ World Championships, as well as the World Constructors’ Championship in 1998. The McLaren Mercedes team became runner-up in the World Championships ten times, with five times in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings respectively.

After winning the drivers’ title with Lewis Hamilton last year, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes finished third in the World Constructors’ Championships this year. The 2008 World Champion won two races with his current car, the MP4-24, achieving a first historic victory with the brake energy-recovery system, KERS Hybrid. No other driver scored more points in the last eight races from the season’s total of 17 races than Lewis Hamilton.

“I want to thank McLaren for a successful collaboration over the last decade and a half”, says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”

“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings,” states Norbert Haug, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. “Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”

Mercedes Grand Prix, the management team of the former Brawn GP team, will continue to work under the leadership of Ross Brawn, who will continue in his well-known role. The Formula 1 team, as well as the engine team of Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, will be co-ordinated by Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, headed by their Vice-President, Norbert Haug.

"Brawn GP has been through an incredible journey over the last 12 months. From fighting for our survival to forging a strong relationship with Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, winning both the Constructors' and Drivers' World Championships, and now accepting Daimler and Aabar's offer to buy our team, which will secure its future”, Team Principal Ross Brawn looks back on a difficult beginning of the year which eventually turned into an extremely successful season.

"Both I and my fellow Directors at Brawn GP are incredibly proud of our staff, drivers and everyone associated with our team and thank them for their commitment, outstanding teamwork and their focus on achieving results in sometimes difficult circumstances. The senior management group will remain in place to lead our team and on behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, we are honoured to be representing such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz in Formula One next year and will be working together to do our best to reward their faith in our team."

The new Silver Arrow team, Mercedes Grand Prix, will compete in Formula 1 as a works team in its own right. Synergies between the 100 per cent Daimler-owned subsidiary Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth, UK, and the Mercedes Grand Prix team based about 28 miles from there in Brackley in the UK, will create even greater efficiency.

It is our target to develop a model for our Formula 1 activities which will initially be run with significantly reduced budgets by Mercedes-Benz and which, in the foreseeable future, will be self-financing”, comments Norbert Haug. “Furthermore, we naturally want to inspire our faithful spectators and TV viewers worldwide and maximize media coverage for our brand. With Formula 1, Mercedes-Benz can continue to clearly demonstrate its willingness to compete and win on the most important motor sports competition stage in the world.”

Khadem Al Qubaisi, Chairman, Aabar Investment PJSC comments: "Aabar is delighted to join forces with Daimler AG and its world leading brand Mercedes-Benz in order to create a new Formula One Team which follows in the footsteps of the longstanding and successful tradition of the famous ‘Silver Arrows’.

“Ever since Aabar became the largest shareholder in Daimler AG, the cooperation between our two organisations has been exemplary, and we have already co-invested in Tesla. Aabar is confident that further successes will follow in this arena.

“Bearing in mind the recent outstanding success of the Abu Dhabi GP, which brought Formula One to the United Arab Emirates for the first time, it is especially exciting to realise that next year, our own cars will be in the field, with the genius of Ross Brawn, who is still deeply involved with the team, now backed by the unrivalled excellence of Mercedes-Benz across the entire spectrum of automotive technology. It is a fantastic prospect, which makes me both pleased and proud for my country.”

[Source: Daimler AG]

RIP Mclaren-Benz SLR. I will always love you.

One team has an all British drivers lineup whilst the other is an all German lineup.
Take your pick.

Hoping the MB GP cars will be Completely silver.. and kick ass..

No white and yellow scheme like Brawn

It seem as though Mercedes didn't feel that Button was instrumental to the success of Brawn in 2009, and it's partially true because during the first 7 races it was the car that drove him and not the other way around. But damn it much suck be be dumped like that, and be sign with another man's house -- Lewis Hamilton GP.

Here's a mockup that's been published by Mercedes GP:

If it was indeed Mercedes's call and not Brawn, they are already repeating past mistakes. The best thing they could do is let Brawn run things.

The paint scheme looks fantastic.

Kimi being out of F1 is completely of his fault.

Thats one serious looking F1 car